Love Lessons: It's Like This
by clagjanet
Summary: Set after "One Flew East" and inspired by a passage in Greg Morton's memoir when he humorously acknowledges that Bruce Boxleitner is really, really handsome and how he never stops hearing about it.


Jamie slid into the booth opposite Lee and glared at him warily. Lee was already engrossed in the menu and didn't appear to be taking any notice as Jamie fidgeted, pushing off on his toes to try and sit up straighter – and taller. It was no good – Lee was just so darn big that nothing Jamie did could bring him up to anywhere near eye-level.

 _Not unless I get a booster seat_ , he mocked himself internally.

"Well hello there! What can I get you and your son today?" The waitress had appeared almost instantly – and her attention was entirely on Lee. It was a miracle she'd even noticed Jamie was at the same booth.

"I'm not his son," he muttered under his breath.

"I'll just have a coffee, thanks," Lee answered the waitress pleasantly.

"And your son?"

"I'm not-" Jamie started to answer a little more forcefully this time.

"Why don't you ask him?" Lee interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "I'm sure he has an opinion on the matter."

It was interesting, Jamie thought, that it sounded like an offhand joke, but there was something in the way Lee said it that had dropped the temperature about twenty degrees. He was still smiling and he hadn't been rude, but the waitress was looking flustered now – and not in that way women were usually flustered around Lee.

"Oh, right," she replied and turned to look at Jamie. "Do you? Have an opinion, I mean, Hon?" She sounded out all the syllables in 'opinion' as if she was teasing - or as if he wouldn't understand it.

Jamie glanced down at the menu, then up in time to catch Lee's expectant gaze on him. He closed the menu and looked up at the waitress, and answered. "Yes, I do. I'll have a double cheeseburger, but with no mustard and no tomato but extra pickle and a plain bun, toasted, not the sesame seed one and I'd like onion rings instead of fries and a chocolate milkshake, no whipped cream and malted if you have that. Please," he added as an afterthought. Just for a split second, he thought he heard Lee make a noise way in the back of his throat, but when he looked, Lee's face was completely blank.

The waitress had barely been able to keep up, but she managed to get it all down and then turned to look at Lee with an expression of disbelief.

"I told you he'd have an opinion," he said, blandly.

There was a beat of silence and then the waitress turned away. The minute her back was turned, Lee started to shake with silent laughter.

"God, you are just like your mother," he grinned.

"No, I'm not, because Mom wouldn't have been rude like that," asked Jamie, hunching down.

"She started it – and you weren't rude, you were self-confident," Lee corrected him. "And your mother is the queen of weaponized politeness. You've learned well, Grasshopper." He leaned over the table and dropped his voice as if he didn't want to be overheard. "But I thought you preferred sesame seed buns?"

"I do – but they get stuck in my braces," Jamie admitted. "So I only eat them at home where I can do a mirror check."

"Ah. Good thinking," Lee nodded.

 _How does he even know I like sesame seed buns better?_

"Lee? Why are we here?" Jamie asked, changing the subject abruptly before he could read too much into that last thought.

"Because you said you were hungry?"

Jamie rolled his eyes. "Not literally. I mean, how come we're out alone and Mom isn't with us?"

Lee shrugged. "Well, I saw a sales flyer for something I thought you'd like and it seemed like a good time to go look since you weren't interested in going to Phillip's game."

"What kind of something?" Jamie asked suspiciously.

"There's a camera shop that's having a closing down sale. I thought we could-"

"You thought you could bribe me," said Jamie in a flat tone. "To like you."

Lee leaned back and crossed his arms. "No, actually. I thought we could do something that interested you instead of," he changed his voice to mimic Jamie, " _always doing what Phillip wants to do_."

"Oh, sure." Jamie knew he sounded like a whiny kid but it was like he couldn't help himself.

"Here you go," said the waitress suddenly reappearing at the table with their drinks. "That burger should be ready in a minute or two. Is there anything else I can get you in the meantime?" She was back to smiling at Lee.

"No thanks," Jamie answered for both of them, just to see if he could get her attention.

She did indeed drag her eyes off Lee for a moment, to acknowledge his answer, before turning them back. Lee said nothing, just raised a brow.

"Right then," she said after a moment of silence that went on just a little uncomfortably long. "I'll go check on that burger."

"Well, at least she likes one of us," snarked Jamie.

Lee heaved a sigh and rubbed a hand over his eyes, before slumping back against the banquette seat. "Look, Jamie… I know you don't like me. I get it, okay? I'm the new guy and I'm always dragging your mom off to do work stuff as well. You have every reason not to like me, but-"

"I don't," blurted out Jamie. "Not like you." he realized Lee was looking at him with a hurt expression. "I mean, I don't _not_ like you."

"You don't not like me?" repeated Lee.

"Yeah." Jamie squirmed in his seat, knowing he was probably getting redder by the minute. "Look, I know I was a jerk when we were playing basketball the other day – but I wasn't mad _at_ you, I was mad _because_ of you and I can tell you probably heard me yesterday when I was fighting with Phillip about you but it's…" He groaned and tossed his hands up in the air. "It's not _you_ – it's the way people are around you!"

Lee's eyes narrowed. "What people?"

"All people!" Jamie grumbled. "When you're around, it feels like nobody sees anybody but you! Grandma's always making comments to Mom about how good-looking you are – actually she tells anyone who listens about the "11" Mom is dating! If you come to pick us up at school, all the moms are suddenly soooo interested in coming to check on what me 'n Phillip are doing! It's like… when you're there, we might as well not even be in the room."

Lee's face had gotten grimmer and grimmer the more Jamie explained. "Jamie, I'm sorry – I didn't realize I made you feel that way."

"You don't! That's not what I mean," he answered miserably.

"Well, you can't mean your mother does! Or your grandmother either." Lee was back to looking confused.

"No, they don't either – but Phillip? He's always talking about how great you are – and you are, don't get me wrong – but you know those girls that were watching us play basketball? Especially that one with red hair that Phillip was trying to impress? The reason I was in such a bad mood was that when I went to get the ball when it went out of bounds was that I heard her say she's only hanging around with him because she thinks you're such a hunk."

Lee's expression had now moved from confused to horrified. "She's only 14! I'm old enough to be her father and then some!"

"Harrison Ford is even older than you but every girl at school still has his picture up in their locker," Jamie pointed out. "Anyway, that's why I was in a bad mood when we were playing – because I'd just heard her say that and Phillip was going on and on about her. And when I was fighting with him yesterday, it wasn't about you – it was because I know she's only going to that stupid skate contest because she knows you'll come to watch too – and Phillip's too dumb to see it and just for a second, I thought if I could make him not like you, it would make it different. "

"So I shouldn't go?"

Jamie shrugged. "It'll hurt his feelings if you don't. And it won't make any difference because she'll just come hang around the house anyway."

Lee shuddered and closed his eyes. "Oh my God." His eyes flew open again. "You don't think I try- -?"

"No, it just happens," Jamie shrugged again. "You probably just smiled at her once."

"I probably just… well, that's ridiculous."

Jamie groaned. "Arrrgh! That's the worst part! You don't even know you're doing it!" He waved his hands at Lee in a sort of all-encompassing gesture. "You just make everybody like you without even trying!"

"Not everybody," retorted Lee but he was starting to laugh a little bit. "You just said you only don't not like me after all, and now I'm not even sure I deserve that much."

"Oh yes, everybody! Even Dad likes you – and that's just… it was weird enough when Mom and Dad never fought like my friends' divorced parents but now him and Carrie and you and Mom are all friends."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Lee was almost helplessly laughing now.

"It's not." Jamie started laughing too. "But Dad likes you even though Carrie's always telling Mom how good looking you are!"

"Oh." The laughter was wiped off Lee's face in an instant.

"Oh, not like that, not like Phillip's girlfriend," Jamie quickly clarified. "She does it like Grandma does – just kind of teasing – and even Dad laughs when she does it because _everybody_ likes you."

"Except you," Lee couldn't help saying again.

"Weelll, I might like you," Jamie drawled. "Just a little bit," he added when there was a slight sign of Lee's dimple starting to show. "But for sure, I am _never_ bringing a girl home if there's any chance you'll be there."

The dimple vanished. "Ah. Well that might be a problem since -"

"Oh no. You're going to be there all the time, aren't you?" Jamie sighed, pretending to be annoyed.

"Is that going to be a problem?"

Jamie toyed with idea of teasing Lee some more, but he looked so serious that he didn't have the heart. "Only if you smile at them."

"I'll be horrible to all of them, I promise," Lee held up his hand. "And I swear never to smile at anyone you bring home – not even the boys."

Jamie started to laugh, only to be interrupted.

"Well, that would be a darn shame," said the annoying waitress who had just appeared with the burger. "Your dad has such a gorgeous smile – I bet you'll look just like him when you get those braces off – like father, like son."

"I'm not-" Jamie started to reply by reflex then caught himself and finished, "Probably ever going to be as tall as him though."

It was worth it to see the way Lee's face lit up with a smile.

* * *

Weeks later, so much later Lee had _almost_ managed to forget how embarrassing that conversation had been, he opened the birthday card Jamie had just given him and tucked inside was a snapshot of… himself. It took him a moment to place when it had been taken before he figured out it was from that first night with the new camera, when Jamie had spent dinner snapping photos of everyone around the table. He'd caught Lee in a completely unguarded moment, looking across the table to something just out of camera range, smiling but not broadly, just looking supremely… happy.

Lee flipped over the photo and read the back, carefully written in Jamie's careful cursive script: "Just so you know… You look at Mom the way everyone else looks at you."


End file.
